Although I’ve played a couple of games set in late 19th-century Japan, I freely admit that my knowledge of the Edo period was surface-level at best. I vaguely knew of the Tokugawa shogunate and Sakamoto Ryōma, but would struggle to go into any depth on either topic if pressed.
Related Context-sensitive In Rise of the Ronin, players are free to pause the game at any moment, including during cutscenes, and be shown a list of key terms related to what is happening at that moment. From there, they can access an encyclopedia with further details on each person, faction, and their interactions. The encyclopedia is extensive and a little intimidating if you just dive into it in the menu, but it works far better if you access it in real time.
Rise of the Ronin isn’t the first video game to have an in-game encyclopedia. Like a Dragon: Ishin! from 2023 was the first game I played with one, although it was far more basic, only giving basic definitions for what was being talked about.
Team Ninja’s latest put me in charge of the pace at which I engaged with these supplemental materials. It never forced me to sit down and read a long chapter about the details of the Shogunate’s relationship with foreign powers and why it created splinter groups against it if I didn’t want to. When I did want to, Rise of the Ronin gave me an even deeper understanding of any given topic than was necessary to adequately enjoy the game.